tributaries, Burma from 1766 to 1769 and Vietnam in 1789, both
ended in bruising defeat. Both attempts can be seen, therefore, as por-
tents of Qing weakness, though this is hardly how they were
interpreted in Beijing.
In 1752, Alaungp’aya, the third great unifier in Burmese history,
had founded the Shwebo dynasty. It was his second son, Hsinbyushin,
however, who consolidated and extended his father’s conquests. In
1767, the Siamese capital of Ayutthaya was taken and sacked. It was
not this aggression against a loyal tributary that provoked Chinese
intervention, however, but simultaneous Burmese attempts to re-
inforce their control over the Shan principalities along the vaguely
defined frontier with Yunnan, plus a dispute over trade. An attempt by
a Burmese embassy to negotiate a settlement was unsuccessful as the
Chinese decided to punish Hsinbyushin for disrupting peace in the
region.
No fewer than four Chinese armies invaded Burmese territory
to attack Ava, but they were unfamiliar with the terrain, poorly co-
ordinated, and constantly harassed by the Burmese. Burmese
stockades held out against Chinese attack, and at length hunger and
the climate took their toll. The Chinese generals sued for peace, to
which the Burmese agreed. An agreement was signed that permitted
remaining Chinese forces to withdraw, reopened trade, and commit-
ted Burma to sending missions once every decade to Beijing.
Hsinbyushin was furious that the invaders had been allowed to
escape. Not until after his death in 1776 did a Burmese mission even-
tually leave for Beijing to obtain investiture for his more pacific
successor. A properly submissive relationship was thus restored, at
least in Chinese eyes.
In 1789 it was the turn of the Vietnamese. Between 1773 and
1787, the great Tayson rebellion finally brought an end to the moribund
Le dynasty by destroying the regimes of both the Nguyen in the south,
and the Trinh in the north. These events were closely followed in
southern China, and when jealousy divided the three Tayson brothers,
Enter the Europeans